Hair treatment and process for hair treatment

ABSTRACT

Hair treatment agent and process for hair treatment on the basis of an alcoholic solution containing a synergistic combination of (A) 0.1 to 40% by weight cetyl alcohol lactic ester and (B) 0.5 to 30% by weight of a monomer quaternary ammonium compound as well as 0 to 15% by weight water. The hair treatment agent may be diluted with water before use. It is applied to the still wet hair after the hair wash and is rinsed off with water after a reaction time of from 3 to 5 minutes. An excellent improvement of the combabillity, the touch and the luster of the hair is noticed with respect to hair treatments with the sole content of one of the two components (A) or (B).

The subject matter of the invention relates to hair treatment agents,which contain cetyl alcohol lactic acid ester, hereinafter calledcetyllactate, and at least one quaternary monomer ammonium compound inan alcoholic solution as well as hair treatment processes by using thesehair treatment agents.

The hair structure is damaged by frequent bleaching, permanents andcoloring, but also due to frequent washing with deoiling air entrainersand by intensive reaction to sunlight. The hair becomes brittle and itlooses its luster. Furthermore, while combing the hair it iselectrostatically charged and the roughened hair surface causes feltingand knotting of the hair. This makes combing difficult. Therefore, hairtreatment to improve combability has attained a considerable importance.

Hair treatment agents act for improving the hair condition andcustomarily are oil-in-water emulsions, which as a framework containcomponents of oily, semisolid or solid substances like, for example,paraffin oil, vaseline, wool fat, wool fat alcohols, fatty acid esteroils and hydrocarbon waxes. As emulsifiers for such emulsionscustomarily quaternary ammonium compounds are used, like oxethylizedalkyl ammonium phosphates, alkyl trimethyl ammonium chlorides, dialkyldimethyl ammonium chlorides, alkyl dimethyl benzyl ammonium chloridesand alkyl pyridinium chlorides alone or in combination with noniogenicemulsifiers. Also watery solutions and watery gels with a content ofquaternary ammonium compounds are frequently used as a hair treatmentagent. Such agents are frequently distributed on the hair in form of aclear hair care rinse, for example, or in form of an emulsion as aso-called creme rinse after the hair wash on the still wet hair, it willremain active on the hair for a few minutes and is then rinsed off withwater.

The wet combability and the touch of the hair can be improved to acertain extent with hair treatment agents on the basis of monomerquaternary ammonium compounds.

In agents for the treatment of hair it is also known to use them asconditioners when the agents contain cationic active polymers, inparticular polymers which contain quaternary ammonium groups. In view ofan alternating reaction between their ammonium groups and the anionicgroups of the hair the cationic active polymers have a great affinitywith respect to the keratine fiber.

It had been found that the use of such cationic active polymers in suchagents results in numerous advantages; the disentanglement of the hairas well as the treatment of which is facilitated, and in furtherance thehair gets bounceability and a luster. However, due to the affinity tothe keratine the polymers tend to collect on the hair during frequentuse, so that the hair becomes heavier which in the final analysis isundesireable.

As had been shown in practice in accordance with the state of the artthese approaches are not fully satisfactory with respect to their hairconditioning effect, in particular concerning the touch, luster as wellas the combability of the hair.

In contrast thereto, it now had been found that hair treatment agents inform of an ethanolic and/or isopropanolic solution with a content of acombination of

(A) 1.0 to 40.0% by weight cetyl alcohol lactic acid ester and

(B) 0.5 to 30.0% by weight of a monomer quaternary ammonium compound

as well as 0 to 15.0% by weight water have a surprising and excellentimprovement of the wet and dry combability of the hair as well as animproved touch in particular of damaged hair. Moreover, an excellentluster of the hair is noticeable.

The excellent noticeable improvement of the combability, the luster andthe touch is surprising and can only be synergistically explained, sincecetyllactate or quaternary monomer ammonium compounds in a correspondingsolution applied alone to the hair results merely in a moderate andinsufficient improvement of the mentioned criteria. As tests have shownthe combination of cetyllactate with quaternary polymers does not showthe synergystic noticeable effect with respect to the describedimprovement of the combability, the luster and the touch of the hair, incontrast to the agents in accordance with the invention on the basis ofcetyllactate and monomer quaternary ammonium compounds.

The hair treatment agents in accordance with the invention are appliedin an amount of about 20 to 50 g, depending on the hair density, eitherin the form of the alcoholic solution after the hair is washed on thestill wet hair or the agent is diluted with water before applying to thehair, whereby an alcoholic watery emulsion is generated which is thenapplied in the same manner. After a reaction time of about 3-5 minutesthe hair is rinsed with water.

The described agents represent watery or slightly thickened alcoholicsolutions which are characterized by a content of the synergisticcombination of cetyllactate and a quaternary monomer ammonium compoundin the amounts stated.

In the hair treatment agents in accordance with the invention, thecetyllactate should be present in an amount of 1 to 40% by weight,preferably in an amount of 8.0 to 20% by weight. The content of thequaternary monomer ammonium compound should be 0.5 to 30% by weight,preferably 1.5 to 10.0% by weight. The isopropyl alcohol or the ethanolor the mixture of these two alcohols should be present in the agents inan amount of from 30.0 to 98.5% by weight, preferably 60 to 95% byweight. Naturally, the hair treatment may contain in addition thecustomary cosmetic constituents and additives for hair treatment agentslike, for example, perfume oils, aromatic extracts, bactericidal orfungicidal substances, denaturants, colorability color substances ordyes which can be directly applied to the hair.

As customary constituents of hair treatment agents water, acetone,n-propanol, cationic or noniogenic hair entrainers, oxethylized fattyalcohols, furthermore, natural modified natural or synthetic polymers,for example, chitosan, furthermore, thickeners, like fatty alcohols,fatty acid esters, cellulose derivatives, paraffins, isoparaffins,vaseline and wool wax as well as caring substances like lanolinderivatives, cholesterin and pantothene acid, antioxidants, preservingagents and antidandruf agents, for example, salicyclic acid,furthermore, pigments and dyes are being taken into consideration, forexample.

Of the known cosmetic dyes, which may be present alone or in a mixture,the following classes may be mentioned by way of example: aromatic nitrodyes (for example, 1,4-diamino-2-nitrobenzene)azo dyes (for example,Acid Brown 4), anthraquinone dyes (for example, C.I. Disperse Violet 4)and triphenyl methane dyes (for example, Basic Violet 1), whereby thedyes of these classes have an acid, nonionogenic or basic character,depending on the type of its substituents. Their total concentrationcustomarily is about 0.05 to 2.0% by weight.

If the hair treatment agent in accordance with the invention is dilutedwith water before being applied to the hair, one can customarily use tapwater. However, the water used for dilution may be packaged separatelyfor the inventive agent and may contain hair cosmetic substances like,for example, aromatic extracts, bactericidal or fungicidal substance,colorability dyes or dyes which can be applied to the hair, if this isadvantageous.

The agents in accordance with the invention in form of alcoholicsolutions may be diluted with water or the packaged watery solution to aratio of up to 1:10, preferably at a ratio of 1:2 to 1:4.

The following examples shall explain the subject matter of the inventionin more detail, without being limited thereto.

EXAMPLES

    ______________________________________                                        Example 1:                                                                    ______________________________________                                        10 g      cetyllactate                                                        4 g       distearyl dimethyl ammonium chloride,                                         75% (remainder:water)                                               86 g      ethanol,pure (94.7% by weight)                                      100 g                                                                         ______________________________________                                    

15 test persons with strongly damaged hair were treated after acustomary hair wash with 18 g each of a hair treatment agent inaccordance with example 1. In order to obtain clear results and toeliminate deviating hair qualities from test person to test person, thehair was parted in the center and one half was treated with thepreparation in accordance with the invention, while the other partremained untreated. In this manner, the effect of the preparation couldbe judged by a group of hair dresser experts. An evaluation wasperformed in accordance with the model for the compiled criteria wet anddry combability, touch and luster of the hair as follows:

1=very good

2=good

3=sufficient

4=insufficient

The result is shown in the following table 1.

    ______________________________________                                                 Grade 1                                                                              Grade 2   Grade 3  Grade 4                                    ______________________________________                                        Number of the                                                                            12       2         1      --                                       test persons                                                                  ______________________________________                                    

Examining the Synergistic Effect

For examining the synergystic effect the hair of a further group of 12persons were treated in the same manner as in example 1, however thehair treatment agent did not contain cetyllactate. In the compound inaccordance with example 1, the cetyllactate was replaced by a furtheraddition of 10 g ethanol. The result of the test is shown in thefollowing table 2.

                  TABLE 2                                                         ______________________________________                                                 Grade 1                                                                              Grade 2   Grade 3  Grade 4                                    ______________________________________                                        Number of the                                                                            --       2         9      1                                        test persons                                                                  ______________________________________                                    

For a further examination of the synergistic effect, a third group ofpeople of 12 persons were treated in accordance with example 1, however,this time the hair treatment agent did not contain distearyl dimethylammonium chloride. In the compound in accordance with example 1, thedistearyl dimethyl ammonium chloride had been replaced by thecorresponding amount of ethanol. The result is shown in table 3.

                  TABLE 3                                                         ______________________________________                                                 Grade 1                                                                              Grade 2   Grade 2  Grade 4                                    ______________________________________                                        Number of the                                                                            --       --        4      8                                        test persons                                                                  ______________________________________                                    

A comparison of the results of table 1, 2 and 3 clearly shows that theagent in accordance with the invention in accordance with example 1 hasa synergistic effect in comparison to the corresponding agents with acontent of only one each of the two components.

    ______________________________________                                        Example 2:                                                                            5 g     cetyllactate                                                          2 g     cetyl trimethyl ammonium chloride,                                            25% watery solution                                                   1 g     perfume oil                                                           92 g    ethanol,pure (94.7% by weight)                                        100 g                                                                 Example 3 :                                                                           15 g    cetyllactate                                                          3 g     lauryl pyridinium chloride (90 to 94%)                                82 g    ethanol,pure (94.7% by weight)                                        100 g                                                                 Example 4:                                                                            12.0 g  cetyllactate                                                          2.0 g   tetradecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide                                 0.1 g   dye Basic Violet 1 (C.I.No.42 535)                                    85.9 g  ethanol,pure (94.7% by weight)                                        100.0 g                                                               Example 5:                                                                            20 g    cetyllactate                                                          10 g    tris (-oligooxyethyl) octadecyl ammonium                                      phosphate                                                             70 g    ethanol,pure (94.7% by weight)                                        100 g                                                                 Example 6:                                                                            11.0 g  cetyllactate                                                          6.0 g   distearyl dimethyl ammonium chloride,                                         75% (remainder: water)                                                0,1 g   2,4,4'-trichlor-2'-hydroxy diphenyl ether                             82.9 g  ethanol,pure (94.7%)                                                  100.0 g                                                               Example 7:                                                                            30 g    cetyyllactate                                                         6 g     methyl-tri (C.sub.8 -C.sub.10 --alkyl) ammonium                               chloride,855                                                          64 g    ethanol,pure (94.7% by weight)                                        100 g                                                                 Example 8:                                                                            19 g    cetyllactate                                                          6 g     distearyl dimethyl ammonium chloride,                                         75% (remainder: water)                                                75 g    isopropanol                                                           100 g                                                                 ______________________________________                                    

35 g of the hair treatment agent in accordance with examples 2 to 8 aredistributed in the washed hair and again rinsed off with water after areaction time of from 3 to 5 minutes. As a result, one obtains anexcellent touch, luster as well as combability of the hair.

All percentage numbers stated in the application represent weightpercent.

We claim:
 1. A synergistic composition for treating hair for improvinghair combability, luster and touch, which consists essentially of:(A)1.0 to 40% by weight of cetyl alcohol lactic acid ester; (B) 0.5 to 30%by weight of a monoquaternary ammonium compound selected from the groupconsisting of distearyl dimethyl ammonium choride, lauryl pyridiniumchloride, tetradecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide,tris-(oligooxyethyl)-octadecyl ammonium phosphate, methyltris(C₈ to C₁₀alkyl) ammonium chloride, and cetyl trimethyl ammonium chloride; (C) 30to 98.5% by weight of ethanol, isopropanol, or mixtures thereof; and (D)0 to 15% by weight water.
 2. A synergistic composition for treating hairfor improving hair combability, luster and touch, which consistsessentially of:(A) 8 to 20% by weight of cetyl alcohol lactic acidester; (B) 1.5 to 10% by weight of a monomer quaternary ammoniumcompound selected from the group consisting of distearyl dimethylammonium chloride, lauryl pyridinium chloride, tetradecyl trimethylammonium bromide, tris-(oligooxyethyl)-octadecyl ammonium phosphate,methyltris(C₈ to C₁₀ alkyl) ammonium chloride, and cetyl trimethylammonium chloride; (C) 60 to 95% by weight of ethanol, isopropanol, ormixtures thereof; and (D) 0 to 15% by weight water.
 3. The synergisticcomposition for treating hair defined in claim 2 wherein the monomerquaternary ammonium compound is distearyl dimethyl ammonium chloride. 4.The synergistic composition for treating hair defined in claim 2 whichconsists essentially of:(A) 10% by weight cetyl alcohol lactic acidester; (B) 4% by weight of a 75% aqueous solution of distearyl dimethylammonium chloride; and (C) 86% by weight of ethyl alcohol.
 5. A processfor treating hair for improving hair combability, luster, and touch,which comprises the steps of:(1) wetting the hair; (2) applying to thehair wetted during step (1) 20 to 50 g of a synergistic, hair-treatingcomposition consisting essentially of:(A) 1.0 to 40% by weight of cetylalcohol lactic acid ester; (B) 0.5 to 30% by weight of a monoquaternaryammonium compound selected from the group consisting of distearyldimethyl ammonium chloride, lauryl pyridinium chloride, tetradecyltrimethyl ammonium bromide, tris-(oligooxyethyl)-octadecyl ammoniumphosphate, methyltris(C₈ to C₁₀ alkyl) ammonium chloride, and cetyltrimethyl ammonium chloride; (C) 30 to 98.5% by weight of ethanol,isopropanol, or mixtures thereof; and (D) 0 to 15% by weight water; (3)permitting the hair-treating composition to react with the hair for aperiod of 3 to 5 minutes; and (4) rinsing the hair.
 6. The process fortreating hair defined in claim 5 wherein prior to step (2) thesynergistic hair-treating composition is diluted by a ratio of 1:2 to1:4 with water or a watery solution.
 7. The process for treating hairdefined in claim 5 wherein prior to step (2) the synergistic hairtreating composition is diluted by a ratio of 1:10 with water or awatery solution.
 8. A process for treating hair for improving haircombability, luster, and touch, which comprises the steps of:(1) wettingthe hair; (2) applying to the hair wetted during step (1) 20 to 50 g ofa synergistic, hair-treating composition consisting essentially of:(A) 8to 20% by weight of cetyl alcohol lactic acid ester; (B) 1.5 to 10% byweight of a monomer quaternary ammonium compound selected from the groupconsisting of distearyl dimethyl ammonium chloride, lauryl pyridinumchloride, tetradecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide,tris-(oligooxyethyl)-octadecyl ammonium phosphate, methyltris(C₈ to C₁₀alkyl) ammonium chloride, and cetyl trimethyl ammonium chloride; (C) 60to 95% by weight of ethanol, isopropanol, or mixtures thereof; and (D) 0to 15% by weight water.
 9. The process for treating hair defined inclaim 8 wherein according to step (2) the monoquaternary ammoniumcompound in the synergistic, hair-treating composition is distearyldimethyl ammonium chloride.
 10. The process for treating hair defined inclaim 8 wherein according to step (2) the synergistic, hair-treatingcomposition consists essentially of:(A) 10% by weight of cetyl alcohollactic acid ester;(B) 4% by weight of a 75% aqueous solution ofdistearyl dimethyl ammonium chloride; and (C) 86% by weight of ethylalcohol.